Games

A Collection of Games that I Write Posts About

Leveling is Relaxing

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One of my many secrets to surviving the time of pandemic has been spending time in World of Warcraft. No matter how long I am away from the game, coming back to it always feels like coming home. We shall not look at the /played time for all of my characters because it would probably frighten me, but needless to say I have spent many an hour poking around in this game since it launched in November of 2004. I go through these periods where I attempt to be super serious about content, but my happiest times are always when I am just poking around and doing casual stuff on my army of characters. I find leveling to be exceptionally calming and before the pandemic I had two characters at 120, and now I have 1 Alliance side and 10 Horde side. Leveling is just something that gives me an opportunity to turn my brain off and relax, and stop worrying about everything that is going on and every possible interaction that I might encounter.

Most recently I had been working on my Mag’har Orc Shaman and I had a really fun time leveling it. Always in the past I have focused entirely on melee characters and as a result I have always leveled Shaman as Enhancement. This time around I decided to mix things up and leveled from the very beginning all the way to 120 as Elemental. I have to say Elemental is exceptionally fun with the way the play style factors around various procs. I think what I enjoyed the most is the fact that I didn’t feel squishy in the same way that I attribute to casters in general. I usually had time to heal myself back up when I was taking damage, or hit one of my “oh shit” buttons like Earth Elemental to take the heat off of me for awhile. The only negative is it felt a little weak in the AOE department, and shocks were really the only viable means of tagging mobs especially when it came to world quests. I finished the Shaman on Friday and then turned around and immediately started working on the next character in sequence.

That would be my Vulpera Rogue, because it just seemed to fit given they are a small and tricksy race to start with. I am leveling Outlaw because I still don’t like daggers at all, and am having a great time of it. Tam would be proud as I use the various rogue tricks to whittle my way through camps of mobs. I’ve also learned the joys of Sap and Pick Pocket used in sequence. I am not sure if I have ever leveled all the way through Stranglethorn Vale since it was changed drastically in cataclysm, so I am absolutely enjoying that as well. I should ding 60 before I finish the area and at that point I will likely jump over to Outlands. I’ve recently developed a taste for the Burning Crusade content and it seems more efficient than running through Wrath of the Lich King for that level block.

Now I realize that all of this is going to be meaningless shortly when the pre-patch lands. I don’t expect to make it all of the way to 120 on the Rogue before that happens, which means I will likely be leveling my last character under the level squish. The only remaining character I have horde side is my Nightborne Shadow Priest, and it is currently wearing heirlooms in Ashenvale. I was not entirely certain how well I would do at leveling a pure caster, but at this point I have leveled the Elemental Shaman and the Warlock, so maybe just maybe shadow will feel natural after those. At least in the case of Shadow Priest I still have a bunch of ways to bring my health back up… which is not a thing you have on a Mage which is why I ultimately used my boost on that character.

Other than that I have been running Coren Direbrew each day on my army of alts, mostly just to farm a few trinkets and that I guess it feels like the thing to be doing. I really enjoy World of Warcraft when we are in these in between times and there is zero pressure to be leveling or gearing. My hope as is always the case is to go into this expansion without feeling the need to chase other players in level or in gearing. However I also know that once I get in the thick of things that the old instincts will kick in and I will apply pressure to myself to rapidly move through the levels and be “ready” for things I am not likely going to do. Right now my plans are to do some Mythic+ key pushing, but for that I need to figure out a viable group. Right now we have my Paladin and Grace’s Monk, so I need to sort out who else we might have access to. I am targeting a EST/CST friendly time frame so apologies to my West Coast friends, but yall need to operate way the fuck too late for my old ass. Hopefully I can make something happen, but for now I am happy leveling my alts.

Swords ‘n Magic and Stuff

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Sometimes on AggroChat we inadvertently sell each other on the games we are playing. On this weekend’s show Tam threw a topic on the trello that I couldn’t pass up, because initially I thought he just wanted to talk about generic fantasy tropes. However apparently it was instead a topic about the Steam recommendation system sending him in the direction of a game named Swords ‘N Magic and Stuff, which exudes a significant amount of charm. I checked it out during the show and it reminded more than a little bit of Cube World, which is a pretty crunchy voxel exploration game. What ultimately made me pick the game up, is knowing that Tam very much does not go in for the Minecraftian style graphical thing and if he was interested them probably it was worth noting.

First points scored for the game is that it has a really interesting character creation system. The characters themselves are extremely stylized but at the same time are capable of expressive characteristics. Right now you have Human, Dryad, Faun, Moon Elf and Sun Orc to choose from with their own color variations available. In practice what this really meant to me was general human, woodgrain character, has ram horns, can be purple and has tusks and horns. I ended up gravitating towards the Orc and made one with rusty red skin and dark green hair and beard. The game scores big props with me for being entirely genderless so you have access to all the same bits and can fiddle with them until you get something that makes you happy. I even got the over the eye scar thing that I seem to love so much and always choose when it is an option as well as a rather high quality braided beard.

The game starts you off on a ship heading to an island in order to seek your fortune. Ships make for an excellent starting point, given that you are in a relatively confined place which makes for easy to follow tutorials. You go through the paces of having the simple interactions of the game explained a bit, and are walked through an early example of a quest where you fetch something that another character can’t get to. Once you have looted anything that isn’t nailed down, you can proceed up on the deck of the ship where you have arrived at the island in question. The captain wants to talk to you about the matter of settling up for your journey, and introduces you to the first few quests which involve going and procuring some dizzy juice for him.

Questing seems to be very much of the “If you give a mouse a cookie variety”, as so far other than a quest to find some glasses they all appear to branch out significantly. In order to get the Dizzy Juice, the tavern keeper asks you to clear out a cave and in order to get into the cave the person standing guard asks you to fetch a mug from inside. Inside the cave there are three crabs and a mug that you can loot, which then allows you to retrace your steps back to the guy who loaned you his key, and back to the tavern keeper who wanted you to clear the cave out… and then back to the captain who gives you a second quest to reserve a room at the inn. As I spread out through the island, many of these quests involved doing sub quests to retrieve something else, which in itself often requires you to get something in order to do it. For example I am being asked to get a candle for a picnic, and in order to get that I need to get some honey combs for the candlemaker… which it seems requires me to have purchased a sling shot to knock them down.

The combat system is fairly straight forward, but one that it very much feels like the deck is stacked against you. Every thing I have encountered so far deals significantly more damage than I am capable of. Additionally there is no health regeneration, so you need to carry with you a fairly ample supply of healing potions which I am hoping at some point I will be able to learn how to craft. Using a weapon increases your skill in that weapon, which seems to increase your likelihood for critical strikes. There is a crafting system that I have not interacted with much, but it allows for you to upgrade your weapons if you gather the resources to do so. Right now I have largely focused on a sword and shield because these were the first weapons that I got access to.

While combat seems a bit uneven at times, one huge boon is the fact that death seems to largely be meaningless. When you die you go into a spirit world similar to that of World of Warcraft, but where it varies greatly is that a timer starts ticking down. When it completes you will be summoned back to life at the nearest shrine, which in the case of early exploration seems to be right near the docks in town. While you are in the spirit world with the timer ticking down you can free explore and scope out dangerous areas, which is pretty cool. The initial island itself seems fairly small, but I did notice there was a ferry that I am guessing will take you to other islands. In some ways the game reminds me of a more combat focused “The Touryst”, because it has a similarly interesting lighting engine.

At this point I have not really spent much time in the game, but I don’t want to dig in too deeply given that it is a pretty fresh early access title. I want to get together with Tam and try out the multiplayer, so we can see how exactly that works. This was the product of a fairly successful kickstarter, and looking at the various stretch goals it seems like there is going to be a lot of interesting things added in over time. That said there already is a lot here, given that there appears to be a fully fleshed out cosmetic system and from the looks of it maybe even a housing system. I find I really like the art style, and once I get a hang of the combat I think that will become a little more fair feeling. I think mostly it is just getting used to bringing up your shield at the exact moment of the attack rather than my usual of holding the shield in front of me… waiting for an attack and then striking.

Right now the game is roughly $20 on Steam, but like I said before is in early access so your mileage may vary depending on your proclivity for early access titles. Right now I plan on poking my head into the game off and on to continue to exploring it in small doses. I am intrigued by what is there enough to keep playing, but I do hope that a more functional map is in the works. Right now you can bring up a sketch of the island but you can’t seem to scroll in or anything. As is usually my case I will likely write again in the future about my adventures, especially if I can find a time when Tam and I can get in and kick the tires for the multiplayer functionality.

My Shaman and the Pre-Patch

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I am not sure exactly what it is about World of Warcraft that causes me to constantly return to it. It could be the fact that I know the expansion is impending, or the fact that my friend Grace is back and leveling again, or it could just be that I find the rhythm of this game comforting in this time of uncertainty. Whatever the case I am largely focused on trying to get this elemental boy to 120 before the impending pre-patch. It is starting to look more and more like said patch is landing next Tuesday the 22nd, and with that disappears the Winds of Wisdom buff that I have been abusing to level all the things. I will truly miss you nonsense leveling speed because it was super fun to run up an army of alts horde side.

I still am not sure what bit flipped in my brain that suddenly allows for playing a caster to be enjoyable. I have long chided the “finger wigglers” of the world, claiming that it was not a thing that Bel’s do. However I am finding the pace and flow of leveling a caster to be terribly enjoyable of late. I don’t think it is enough that I will probably swap to one as a main, but it is still an interesting diversion. Right now I can legitimately say that I enjoy both the Elemental Shaman and various specs of the Warlock. I think Mage may still be a bit too squishy for my tastes, but the fact that I can heal myself up mid fight I think is what adds to the love of this Shaman.

With the pre-patch comes a slew of activities and a return of the scourge trying to invade Azeroth. Unfortunately gone are the really cool Judgement reskin armor sets from the Wrath of the Lich King event, and in its place are a bunch of reskins of the existing Warfront gear. The Alliance are getting brand new colors, and it appears that the horde are getting the same damned set we have had previously which sucks a little bit. Mostly for me I am looking at this as a way of gearing out characters prior to the patch since I have a feeling even with the squish this is ultimately going to be better gear than my alts are currently wearing.

WowHead has a guide to everything that has changed with the pre-patch and more importantly a guide to all of the Scourge Invasion events that I have been snipping images from. I have to admit the part that interests me the most is hanging around in Icecrown and farming the various World Bosses that are available. The base armor available for the event is item level 100 which is supposedly the “squished” version of 430 gear that comes from Normal mode Ny’alotha. I’ve heard that some items can be obtained at a 110 level, but I am not seeing this in the Wowhead Guide. The item that is probably going to be of the most interest is that Bronjahm is dropping an updated version of his bag that is 34 slots.

I am a sucker for pre-patches. I ground the hell out of the one that came with Legion and loved doing those Burning Crusade invasions. In that cause they also served as a really damned fast way to level a bunch of alts, and I remember doing this to catch up all of my Alliance characters at the time to level 100. It does not sound like the Undead Invasions are going to have this fringe benefit, but I do want to spend a little bit of time on my Alliance characters if for no reason other than to try and collect some of the unique armor appearances. As it stands my goals this week are to finish the shaman and prepare myself for a bunch of event nonsense starting next week. The launch of an expansion always brings out a sudden mania, but I will do my best to keep my cool.

Revisiting Division 2

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A game I have not talked about in a really long time is The Division, or at least in the case of today The Division 2. For the longest time I have not known why I actually bounced off of this game so hard. It came out, I was enjoying myself and then in my faulty memory I just suddenly was not playing it anymore. Turns out what ACTUALLY happened is this game launched fifteen days ahead of Anthem. Anthem was a game that I had been clamoring to get my hands on and I ultimately threw myself into it entirely… for as long as that lasted. Quietly however in the background Division 2 was just being a good game, patiently waiting for me to notice it.

Ultimately I can thank Scarybooster for mentioning the game. The other night I was talking about being disillusioned with Avengers and not certain what I should be playing instead and he threw out Division 2. It turned out that I still even had the game installed, and at some point picked up the Warlords of New York expansion on sale thinking I would make a return. I found it odd just how easy it was to slide back into the game. I had some significant issues with the first game that I have never really been able to put my finger on. The moment to moment gameplay did not feel near as fun as it does in Division 2, and I am guessing maybe it is just because I feel like I have a significantly stronger solo kit in the form of a turret and a healing drone.

Additionally I feel significantly more sturdy than I did in Division, and that is combined with the fact that the individual encounters feel less bullet spongey. Whatever the case and whatever balance patches that have been applied, the state of the game at this very moment feels exceptionally good to be playing. I am not sure if I am just in a different place mentally, and maybe in a better mindset to approach combat tactically. It could be any number of factors adding up to the game clicking at this very moment in time. Whatever the case I am enjoying myself and mainly enjoying the moment to moment play of roaming the streets and helping people.

I think part of it as well is the tonal shift between the first and second game. There were a lot of moments in the first game where you were left wondering.. Are we the baddies? So much suffering was caused by Division agents and it did not help that most of your interactions on the streets were either shooting someone or watching civilians run away screaming at the sight of you. Now the game has shifted and after the fall of society a number of communities have sprung up, and you spend a pretty good amount of time helping these groups out. Little things like taking back an outpost from some hostile faction, then clears the way for the folks to return there safely. This then triggers caravans to move between settlements and these outposts and slowly converts a neighborhood to being mostly friendly folks trying to live their lives in the apocalypse, giving you even more opportunities for casual assistance.

The other thing that I dig is that I am finding it significantly easier to stay with a loadout that I actually enjoy. When I came back the other day I think I was level 16 and have since progressed to 23 with 30 being the initial level cap, and then New York taking it the rest of the way to 40. My gear of choice is a semi automatic rifle and a shotgun. I tend to spec the rifle to high stability, which allows me to use it long range to do some sniping, but the high rate of fire allows me to chew things down as they are getting closer. If someone absolutely runs up on me I can swap to the shotgun and drop them pretty quickly. I rarely if ever use the pistol, and it is mostly there as a last ditch “I ran out of ammo” option which seems to occur significantly less in this game.

My engagements tend to follow a pattern, where I will survey the room and look for a perch to set my turret up on an elevated position that can hit most of the targets. Then it provides suppression fire while I pick off the individual targets. If anyone clusters within range I throw a grenade, but slowly but surely I can chew down the initial wave until the boss and mini boss start to arrive. At which point I will pop my healing drone and hope for the best. I like that I can proactively destroy my drone and turret and I tend to wait out the timer while I search an area for anything worth looting, before ultimately triggering the next event. Division 2 is pretty good about giving you pauses in the action where you can wait things out if you so choose, and I appreciate this greatly.

You would think that it would not be enjoyable to play a game about the fall of society due to a biological agent… when we are effectively living through the fall of society due to a pandemic, but it weirdly works for me. Like I said above, so much of I think why it works so nicely is the change in tone. Division 1 was bleak and so much of my actions felt like the dying gasps of an old regime. Sure there is some of that in Division 2, but there is significantly more of the content that feels like I am actually helping folks out. I think that is why I enjoy roaming the streets so much because you are constantly coming across a caravan that needs assistance or saving some hostages from one of the armed groups. Those little moments make me feel far more like a wild west sheriff than a clandestine paramilitary operative.